Ye shall not make Me gods of silver.
God’s voice, but not a form
God’s voice. Indicative of the Divine personality.
II. God’s abhorrence of idolatry. Our loftiest conceptions, embodied in the most costly and precious material forms, must fall short of Infinite perfectness.
III. God’s love of simplicity. Altars of earth, and altars of unhewn stone. The simplest is often the purest and the divinest. Man’s superb altars lead to degrading conceptions of the Infinite.
IV. God’s respect to appearances. “Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon.” Let all things be done decently and in order, is the injunction of two economies.
V. God’s superiority to splendid structures. In all places where God’s name is recorded there He will come, and there He will bless. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
Public worship
1. The end for which God reveals Himself is, that we should worship Him.
2. God’s revelation of Himself should be kept in perpetual memory by acts of public worship.
3. God, having made a spiritual revelation of Himself, should not be worshipped under any symbolic form.
I. Public worship involves cost.
II. Public worship can dispense with elaborate ritual.
III. Public worship carefully excludes all idea of merit on the part of the worshipper.
IV. Public worship is not confined to set places.
V. Public worship does not depend on the material or intellectual qualifications of the worshipper.
VI. Public worship must be conducted with proper decency.
VII. Public worship, when properly conducted, is uniformly attended with a blessing.
1. The Divine presence.
2. The Divine benediction. (J. W. Burn.)